Have you ever wanted to trade lives with someone else for a day or two? I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Freaky Friday series of movies. The first one came out in 1976. Since then, three more versions of the movie have been made.
Freaky Friday is about a mother and daughter who wake up one morning to discover they have magically traded lives. For one day, mother and daughter get a rare opportunity to see life through the other’s eyes. In the span of that one day, they each develop a sense of empathy and respect for the struggles of the other person.
What happened in the Freaky Friday movies is physically impossible, of course. But there is an organization called The Human Library that tries to teach empathy and respect by letting folks see life through another person’s eyes.
Back in the year 2000, a Danish human rights activist named Ronni Abergel started The Human Library after a young friend of his was badly injured in a violent attack. Abergel believed that society would benefit if we could all learn from the experiences of people who are different from us . . . if we could see life through their eyes. So he began recruiting people to share their life experiences with others. Specifically, he recruited people who were “stigmatized or unconventional”—people who are often marginalized by the larger society . . . people who are the targets of prejudice or misunderstanding . . . people with disabilities . . . people from minority religions . . . people who had grown up in situations of abuse . . . people who had served time in prison. He referred to these subjects as human “books.” And he set up 30-minute question-and-answer sessions between these human “books” and members of the general public—anyone who wanted to learn about their lives.
For example, in one Human Library session, people ask a man confined to a wheelchair, “What was it like for you to go to school as a kid? How should I offer help to a person with a disability if I see them needing assistance in public?” This human book noted that he could never do spontaneous outings with his friends since it was necessary for him to plan ahead for any trip outside his house. He could only go to places where the streets and buildings and public transportation were wheelchair accessible.
Another human “book” was a woman with an eating disorder. She told how a family member’s cruel remark about her weight inspired her to begin starving herself when she was just a child. A formerly homeless man shared personal details about his life on the streets. (1) Each of these “human books,” by sharing their unique experiences, helped develop empathy for other people’s experiences.
I wonder what we would learn if we could spend 30 minutes with the physically challenged woman in today’s Bible story found in Luke 13. The story begins like this: “On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.” Crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. Bent over and could not straighten up at all. If she agreed to be a human book and you could see life through her eyes, what questions would you ask her? I’d ask, “What do you miss the most about your old life? What can others do to help you? What do you wish people understood about your condition?”
The next verse in our Bible story today, verse 12, reads, “When Jesus saw her, he called her forward. . .” I want you to picture this moment in your mind. What if I called you by name and asked you to come to the front of the church? Would you jump up with a smile and run up to the front? Or would you cringe and slump down in your seat and avoid eye contact? Most people aren’t comfortable getting “called to the front” of any gathering. And Jesus calls a woman who is so bent over that she can’t stand up straight at all. Put yourself in her shoes. What must she be thinking? Who is this man? What does he want with me? I wonder how she felt as she made her way through the crowd of worshipers to stand beside him. I’d like to ask her, what did you expect when you came to Jesus?
In fact, that’s a question I’d like to ask you this morning too: What did you expect when you came to Jesus? Or did you expect anything? I’m so glad you came to church this morning. I hope you feel loved, welcomed, accepted just as you are. But I don’t know your story. I don’t know the beliefs, the questions, or the struggles you may have brought with you today. I don’t know what you expected when you walked through these doors. Maybe you expected a guilt trip. Maybe you just expected a little wisdom, a little inspiration, a little comfort to brighten your day. Or maybe, like the crippled woman in our story, you’ve been waiting and hoping for so long that you are afraid to expect anything. Maybe you’ve gone numb. The Greek word Jesus uses to describe this woman’s condition means “weakness.” If I’d spent eighteen years struggling under a spirit of weakness, I would be too numb to expect anything anymore.
I read about a man named John Patterson who grew up hearing about a God of anger and judgment in his childhood church. Patterson grew into an angry adult who didn’t want anything to do with God. But his life changed when he attended a church that taught him about God’s love and mercy. He never expected to meet the God he met in the life of Jesus Christ. He said, “To say I was surprised by His love would not be sufficient. I was completely overwhelmed. I asked God over and over to forgive me and told Him whatever life I had left, no matter how much or how little, I wanted it to count for Him.”
One year after John Patterson’s life-changing experience with the God of love, he was scheduled for a heart transplant. He was only forty-nine years old. On the night before his surgery, John’s surgeon presented him with a difficult decision: would he be willing to give up his donor heart to save the life of a 17-year-old boy who was dying? Wow that was a tough one! Did he have any assurance that another donor heart would become available for him? No, he didn’t. But John did have assurance that if he died, he had eternal life with God. He had already received a new spiritual heart when he became a follower of Jesus. Could he ask for more than that? So he agreed to let the surgeon use the donor heart for the 17-year-old boy.
The good news is that the boy’s surgery was a success, and John received another donor heart one week later. (2)
It’s hard to find a story in the Gospels where people got what they expected from Jesus. In fact, almost every person who walks away from an encounter with Jesus is surprised, overjoyed, challenged or changed in some way.
If you read through the Gospels, you’ll see one undeniable thread: Jesus is always looking to transform people’s lives with God’s truth, God’s healing, or God’s love. Some people fell at his feet in gratitude. Some people plotted to kill him. However, no one was neutral toward him. An encounter with Jesus will always challenge you or change you.
And that brings us back to the crippled woman who had been called forward by Jesus. What did her encounter look like? Jesus said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.”
That brings me to a second question we might want to ask the previously crippled woman: How did the world look different after Jesus set you free? Only those who have been set free from a burden truly know how to praise God. It is only through our suffering that we understand the power of joy.
Luke only needs one sentence to show us what this moment meant to the crippled woman. He writes, “. . . immediately she straightened up and praised God.”
Dr. Sanduk Ruit, a surgeon in Nepal, has performed cataract surgery on more than 100,000 Nepalese citizens. He has literally restored sight to blind eyes. Dr. Ruit grew up in a small village in Nepal. His parents were illiterate. The closest school was 11 miles away. Dr. Ruit’s village had no electricity or medical facilities. In spite of all the challenges his family faced, Dr. Ruit’s parents were determined to get their son an education.
Coming from the background he did, Dr. Ruit’s accomplishments are considerable. But Dr. Ruit’s greatest accomplishment is pioneering a cataract microsurgery technique that does not require the advanced machinery necessary for cataract removal in the U.S. or Europe.
Ali Gripper, a journalist, interviewed Dr. Ruit and was given permission to observe the responses of patients when their bandages were removed right after they underwent surgery to restore their sight. Gripper writes, “They squint, and then slowly look at their own clothes and hands. Then, as their line of vision expands out at faces, neighbors, then further afield to buildings, mountains, the sky. They break into ecstatic smiles or cry with pent-up relief. Some get up to dance.
“In a moment, the patient starts looking ten years younger. They come into the eye camp led by someone, hunched, withdrawn, and they leave walking upright, beaming and proud.” (3) Isn’t that beautiful? “. . . they leave walking upright, beaming and proud.” Don’t you think the crippled woman left the synagogue exactly like that?
It’s sad to me that we don’t know any more of her story. We saw the moment when she came to Jesus and was set free. But we don’t know the rest of her story. Because the most important moment in a person’s life occurs when they come to Jesus. But the second most important moment is when they decide what to do with their transformed life.
In fact, that’s the third question we might want to ask the previously crippled woman: Now that Christ has changed your life, what will you do with the rest of your life? That is a question that should be asked of everyone who has had their life changed by Jesus Christ—including you and me: Now that Christ has set you free, what will you do with the rest of your life? Like the healed woman, we may praise God. But how do you put praise into action when you walk out of these church doors? How do you share the transforming power of Jesus with other people who need to be set free from their burdens?
In January 2007, a young couple in Knoxville, Tennessee, Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, were brutally tortured and murdered. Channon’s father, Gary Christian, had been a devoted Christian all his life. But as he left the police station after learning the details of his daughter’s death, he screamed up at the sky.
“I am done with you,” he screamed at God. “I don’t want you in my life. I don’t need you in my life, and I don’t trust you with anything.”
Gary was consumed with rage and fantasies of revenge against his daughter’s killers. For the next ten years, he stayed away from church and from any thoughts of God. He started a motorcycle club, the Shepherds RC. This club held a special ride each year to raise funds for college scholarships in Channon’s memory. The Newsoms and the Christians advocated for a new law in Tennessee, the Channon Christian Act, which was passed in 2014. It puts limits on how criminal defendants and attorneys can negatively portray the victim of a crime.
On Easter 2017, some members of the Shepherds RC motorcycle club invited Gary Christian to their church. The message that morning was on Jesus’ encounter with Peter after Jesus’ resurrection. You’ll remember that Peter had denied Jesus three times and abandoned him and yet the first time Jesus meets Peter after the resurrection, he forgives him and restores him to ministry.
A few weeks later, on the Sunday of their annual ride for Channon, the Shepherds convinced Gary to attend church with them again.
After church, they headed to the cemetery to visit Channon’s grave. The only thing Gary could think about on their ride that morning was the recent sermons he’d heard. He reports that when he finally got to Channon’s grave, Gary went down on his knees, and asked God, “Just like you did with Peter, restore me.” And He did. Ten years after Gary Christian screamed at God in the police station parking lot, he was set free from his burden of anger and hatred.
Today, Gary Christian speaks to churches and other groups on his spiritual journey and the restoration he found in Jesus Christ. He has spoken to more than 30,000 people, and he doesn’t charge any speaking fees. He says, “I told the Lord that I would spread his word to every corner of the world that I could when he restored me. And if one person is saved or one person rededicated their life, it’s all worth it.” (4)
I hope before you leave here this morning, you will examine some of your expectations and experiences with Jesus. If you don’t know anything about Jesus, if you have questions and don’t know what to do with them, then I hope you’ll stick around and ask. Because Jesus was God in the flesh. He became fully human so he could experience our burdens and sorrows and share with us the love of God. He died so that we could live eternally with God. There is no question, no objection, no anger, no burden that could separate you from his love.
And if you have come to Jesus, if he has set you free from a burden, then what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Tell others about the hope, the healing and the love you have found in Jesus. Share their burdens. Put your praise into action. And in doing so, you can lead others to find the freedom and new life and joy that you found in Jesus Christ.
1. “The Human Library” by John Blake, CNN, November 14, 2021 https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/14/health/human-library-blake-cec/index.html.
2. By John Patterson in More God Allows U-Turns by Allison Gappa Bottke, with Cheryll Hutchings and Ellen Regan (Uhrichsville, OH.: Promise Press, 2001), pp. 38-42.
3. “I can feel their pain: Dr. Sanduk Ruit” by Ali Gripper, TheHindu.com, November 8, 2019. https://www.thehindu.com/society/i-can-feel-their-pain-dr-sanduk-ruit/article29919398.ece.
4. “Gary Christian: From rage to restoration, a murder victim's father finds the faith he left behind” by Amy McRary, Knoxville News Sentinel, Sept. 6, 2018.